Russia vows to retaliate if US stores weapons on its borders

A plan by Washington to station tanks and heavy weapons in NATO states on Russia’s border would be the most aggressive US act since the Cold War, and Moscow would retaliate by beefing up its own forces, a Russian defense official said.

The United States is offering to store military equipment on allies’ territory in eastern Europe, a proposal aimed at reassuring governments worried that after the conflict in Ukraine, they could be the Kremlin’s next target.

Poland and the Baltic states welcomed the decision by Washington to take the lead, Reuters said.

But others in the region were more cautious, fearing their countries could be caught in the middle of a new arms race between Russia and the US.

“If heavy US military equipment, including tanks, artillery batteries and other equipment really does turn up in countries in eastern Europe and the Baltics, that will be the most aggressive step by the Pentagon and NATO since the Cold War,” Russian defense ministry official General Yuri Yakubov said.

“Russia will have no option but to build up its forces and resources on the Western strategic front,” Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

He said the Russian response was likely to include speeding up the deployment of Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave bordered by Poland and Lithuania, and beefing up Russian forces in ex-Soviet Belarus.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said: “We hope that reason will prevail and the situation in Europe will be prevented from sliding into a new military confrontation which may have dangerous consequences.”

The Pentagon said on Monday the US military was in the process of deciding where to store a battalion’s worth of military equipment in Europe.

The decision is part of a long-term effort to maintain equipment for a heavy brigade in the region to facilitate US rotational training with NATO allies.

“This is purely positioning of equipment to better facilitate our ability to conduct training,” said Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.

US President Donald Trump has announced what was long anticipated: that he will not certify that Iran is complying with the July 2015 “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action” (JCPOA) signed by the United States,...

In the age of the internet, basically everything can be “virtualized”, including a state. In fact, nowadays, the idea of “virtualized countries” is no longer beyond the realm of possibility. And one European country...

As the world struggles to rein in emissions of climate-changing gases and limit planetary warming, a new technological silver bullet is gaining supporters. Geoengineering – the large-scale manipulation of the Earth’s natural systems –...

Fugitive Chinese tycoon Guo Wengui posted on social media this week four pictures that show him in meetings with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. The billionaire businessman, who is wanted in China...

Amid the boom in e-commerce, brick-and-mortar retailers can’t afford to stick to their old ways of doing business. IKEA has become the latest major retailer to radically overhaul its sales strategy in the face...

The seizure of nine armored personnel carriers belonging to the Singaporean military by Hong Kong customs last year was an unmistakable indication that Beijing was toughening its stance toward the tiny Southeast Asian state....

One positive outcome of the trade tensions of recent years is a renewed interest in understanding how trade actually works, in terms of aggregate gains, distributional effects, adjustment costs, and other factors. Governments are...